Armed Jews vs. The Nazis
When I was in high school, I wrote an essay and won a scholarship for a trip to Israel. I went the summer after my senior year. Part of the trip included a week working on Kibbutz Yad Mordechai in Ashkelon (where 100-some scrawny Jews plus 20 Hagannah fighters held off the Egyptian army for five days).
The place was named for Mordechai Anielewicz, the leader of the Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa (Jewish Combat Organization) during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising from January to May of 1943.
David Kopel, author of the upcoming book, The Morality of Self-Defense and Military Action: The Judeo-Christian Tradition
One of the most successful battles of the Jewish resistance was the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Nearly every Jew who participated was eventually killed -- but they were going to be killed anyway. By choosing to stand and fight, the Warsaw Jews diverted a significant amount of Nazis resources from battlefields elsewhere, thus hastening the Nazi defeat....On Jan. 18, 1943, the Germans rounded up 7,000 Jews and sent them to the extermination camp at Treblinka; they killed 600 more right in Warsaw. But on that day, an uprising began. In the beginning, the Jewish Fighting Organization had about 600 volunteers; the Jewish Military Association had about 400, and there were thousands more in spontaneous small groups. The Jews had only 10 handguns, but the Germans did not realize how under-armed the Jewish fighters were.
After four days of fighting, the Germans on January 21 pulled back from the ghetto, to organize better. A diary written in the Warsaw ghetto exulted, "In the four days of fighting we had made up for the shame of Jewish passivity in the first extermination action of July, 1942." [Ber Mark, "The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising," in "They Fought Back" ed., Yuri Suhl (N.Y.: Paperback Library, 1968; 1st pub. 1967), pp. 104-06].
Not only the Germans were shocked by the unexpected resistance, but also the Jews were astonished. They could not imagine until then that the beaten, exhausted victims could rise against a mighty enemy who had conquered Europe. Many Jews who were in the streets of Warsaw during the fighting refused to believe that on Zamenhof and Mila streets Jewish boys and girls had attacked Germans. The large-scale fighting which followed convinced all that it was possible.
In February 1943, the Polish Home Army transferred 50 revolvers (many of them defective), 50 hand grenades, and four pounds of explosives to the Jews in the Warsaw ghetto. The Warsaw Jews also manufactured their own explosives, including Molotov cocktails. But, wrote Ringelblum, as in Biblical days, "their most potent weapon was their deep sense of national pride and responsibility."
...The Nazi minister of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, wrote in his diary, "the joke cannot last much longer, but it shows what the Jews are capable of when they have arms in their hands." [Yuri Suhl, introduction to "They Fought Back," p. 15.]
The Nazis brought in tanks. The Jews were ready with explosives. First one tank and then a second were immobilized in the middle of the street, in flames, their crews burned alive.
...Another eyewitness described the confusion in the German ranks: "There runs a German soldier shrieking like an insane one, the helmet on his head on fire. Another one shouts madly 'Juden...Waffen...Juden... Waffen!'" ["Jews...weapons!"]
Eventually, the Jewish forces began to run out of ammunition. The Warsaw Jews, like the Jews throughout Europe, were unable to produce their own ammunition. There was little "gun culture" among European Jews of the 1930s, so few Jews had the equipment for "reloading" -- the home manufacture of ammunition. In contrast, hundreds of thousands of American families own the machine tools used for reloading; home manufacture of ammunition is legal everywhere in the United States.
Stymied in house-to-house fighting, the Germans began to burn the ghetto to the ground on April 22. The Warsaw Ghetto fire was probably the largest urban fire in Europe since Nero's fire in Rome. On April 23, Himmler ordered SS Major General Jürgen Stroop to finish things quickly, and Stroop promised to complete his job that same day. But he could not.
...The Germans suffered over a thousand casualties in the first week of fighting alone. The Germans had to spend more time subduing the Warsaw Ghetto than they did conquering the entire nations of Poland or France.
...In Warsaw, as elsewhere, the key impediment to resistance was shortage of arms. According to Holocaust historian Abram L. Sachar: "The indispensable need, of course, was arms. As soon as some Jews, even in the camps themselves, obtained possession of a weapon, however pathetically inadequate--a rifle, an ax, a sewer cover, a homemade bomb--they used it and often took Nazis with them to death." Thus, "the difference between resistance and submission depended very largely upon who was in possession of the arms that back up the will to do or die." [Sacher, pp. 47-48, 60.]
Anielevich,the Warsaw ghetto commander, believed that: "We should have trained the youth in use of live and cold ammunition. We should have raised them in a spirit of revenge against the greatest enemy of the Jews, of all mankind, and of all times...."
...In 1967, the International Society for the Prevention of Crime held a Congress in Paris on the prevention of genocide. The Congress concluded that "defensive measures are the most effective means for the prevention of genocide. Not all aggression is criminal. A defense reaction is for the human race what the wind is for navigation -- the result depends on the direction. The most moral violence is that used in legitimate self-defense, the most sacred judicial institution."
And this all cuts to the heart of what the Second Amendment is all about. Ultimately, it goes deeper than just what kinds of guns or how many rounds of ammunition a citizen should be permitted to possess. It's about the right to defend yourself. Living in a society where you do not have a right to self-defense must be a miserable experience -- how can you have human dignity if you aren't allowed to protect yourself (or your home and family) from unprovked assault? In such a society, what stops thugs and jackboots from dominating the citizenry? Nothing, as evidenced by the 20th-century (and some more recent) examples. Universal right to self-defense increases trust, and a high-trust society is more efficient than a low-trust one.
Cousin Dave at October 12, 2015 7:09 AM
The proper word for a person denied the right to self-defense is serf.
I R A Darth Aggie at October 12, 2015 7:42 AM
Right on. Both of you.
Amy Alkon at October 12, 2015 7:53 AM
Cousin Dave,
If a Republican is in office, repeating those sentiments in public makes you a thoughtful defender of individual rights. Bushitler.
If a Democrat is in office, you are a paranoid wingnut and the the best argument anyone could make for gun control. I mean....seriously....I can't even.
"Uprising." Brilliant movie. Even David Schwimmer couldn't ruin it. But I have to say, and I don't think Amy will take offense at this, the most ardent support for gun control, and the most sneering dismissals of the need for the individual right of self defense and firearms ownership have come, in my experience, from American Jews. The very people who should know better than anyone else.
The WolfMan at October 12, 2015 9:02 AM
My grandmother left Slovakia in 1937. Her parents were not so lucky. I have a 90 year Aunt who last saw her mother when Dr. Mengele told her to go in one line and her mother in another. My personal lesson from the Holocaust is very simple. I am not going out like a bitch. No cattle cars for me. I realize that if I had to face an army with the couple of hand guns I own I would not get to0 far but hopefully I can take a few Nazis with me.
Shtetl G at October 12, 2015 10:45 AM
It has been rather surprising to me that ever since Dr. Carson made his statement about "if only Jews had guns . . " or whatever it was he said, there have been a number of talking heads who are refuting what he said. As if to say, nay, that can't be right. Nothing would have stopped Hitler and the Nazis except a full war.
Maybe so; But, this is key to me:
"Nearly every Jew who participated was eventually killed -- but they were going to be killed anyway."
Damn straight - if you're going to be killed anyway, at least, take some of the bastards out with you. You want to take my life? The you WILL pay a price.
charles at October 12, 2015 11:16 AM
If Europe (and the USA) were serious about stopping ISIS and the ME they would round up every male "refugee" and ship 'em back to a suitable military base.
The old and infirm can do medical/housekeeping stuff and the able can fight on whatever side they want. Let them fight for freedom over there.
Fat chance but then Europe and the USA are not really serious about this crisis.
Bob in Texas at October 12, 2015 11:39 AM
"But I have to say, and I don't think Amy will take offense at this, the most ardent support for gun control, and the most sneering dismissals of the need for the individual right of self defense and firearms ownership have come, in my experience, from American Jews."
Add to that an American President, who, without arms, would be the personal property of a white man, along with his family, and whose rights were measured by his ability to possess a gun.
Nearly everywhere, it is totally lost on people that none of the major changes have been accomplished by talking about it.
Radwaste at October 12, 2015 12:22 PM
Agreed, Radwaste. The Bullet or the Ballot. There has never been a third choice.
The WolfMan at October 12, 2015 12:30 PM
The boxes of liberty:
Soap
Ballot
Jury
Cartridge
I R A Darth Aggie at October 12, 2015 2:36 PM
Gun control zealots and their politicians and celebrities talk like dignity means nothing.
It's bad enough that their only strategy for self defense is to piss themselves and hope they can grovel sufficiently to satisfy some thug's desire to humiliate and degrade them. They also want to impose the same by law on everyone else.
What they don't seem to get is that unlike them, for most people dignity is as important as life itself, and worth fighting and killing or dying for. A lot of people would rather be killed than lose their dignity. A lot of people kill themselves over the loss of it.
One of the most important factors for evaluating someone's risk for suicide (or homicide) is recent or impending shame, humiliation or loss of dignity.
Ken R at October 12, 2015 2:57 PM
In the 6th grade we were taught that to limit the potential for abuse of power our government has a system of three checks and balances, which consists of the three separate branches of government. The problem is these three checks and balances are all in the hands of the politicians and officials in the three branches of government, who all stand to benefit from abusing power, and who've long since learned to accommodate each other.
As a young adult I learned that there are two more checks on abuse of power, that are in the hands of the people, that politicians and officials fear and never cease their efforts to infringe and deny: jury nullification and the right to keep and bear arms.
Ken R at October 12, 2015 3:24 PM
The best film on the Warsaw Uprising is "Kanal" from 1957 directed by the great Andrzej Wajda.
"A symbolic depiction of hell on Earth, set in the last days of the Warsaw uprising in 1944. Lieutenant Zadra is commanding a company of 43 men in a desperate battle amidst the ruins. Facing German offense and cut off from their comrades, Zadra is commanded to retreat his men through the sewer system ('kanal'). Zadra and his men are reluctant to do so, as it would indicate that they have lost the battle, but decide to obey the orders. However, as the men (and women) retreat, it becomes clear that their desperate attempt to flee from the hell of battle will result only in more death and suffering... Written by Heka A." (from IMDB).
The film is part of his trilogy of war films:
A Generation - 1955 (Roman Polanski is one of the cast)
Kanal - 1957
Ashes and Diamonds - 1958
Wajda also directed a 2007 film "Katyn" on the Soviet massacre of 20,000 Polish military officers, politicians and intelligentsia. Wajda's father was one of the victims.
"On 17 September 1939, a group of Polish officers and soldiers are imprisoned by the Soviet Army on the border of Poland. Anna and her daughter Nika travel from Krakow to meet her husband and officer Andrzej and they try to convince him to leave the soldiers and escape back home. However, Andrzej refuses to leave the troop and is deported to USSR. Later the Soviet tells that the Polish officers had been massacred by the Germans in the Katyn Forest with a shot on the back of the neck. However Anna retrieves Andrzej's diary and discloses that the soldiers had been actually murdered by the Soviet Army. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil" (from IMDB).
Jay J. Hector at October 12, 2015 4:11 PM
The Nazi government in 1933 or 1936 or even in 1938 was nowhere near as powerful as it was in 1940. And one thing most people don't realize is the degree to which atrocities against Jews (and against other opponents of Naziism) were perpetrated by street thuggery as well as by official and pseudo-official government organizations.
If attacks on Jew had been met with strong violent responses from the beginning, I think it is quite likely that history would have worked out idfferently.
David Foster at October 12, 2015 4:14 PM
Do you know when and where the 2nd
amendment really and truly proved its worth? In the south during the civil rights era of the 1950's and 60's. Think of it, blacks were just as well armed as those who would do harm to them. How much worse would it have been for blacks if they were unarmed?
David Crawford at October 12, 2015 4:40 PM
Negroes With Guns: Rob Williams and Black Power
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/negroeswithguns/rob.html
The NRA chartered a black gun club in Monroe, S.C. so the blacks could fight off the KKK:
"In 1956, Williams took over leadership of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which was close to disbanding due to a relentless backlash by the Ku Klux Klan. Williams canvassed for new members and eventually expanded the branch from only six to more than 200 members.
Williams also filed for a charter from the National Rifle Association (NRA) and formed the Black Guard, an armed group committed to the protection of Monroe’s black population. Members received weapons and physical training from Williams to prepare them to keep the peace and come to the aid of black citizens, whose calls to law enforcement often went unanswered."
"In 1959, after a jury in Monroe acquitted a white man for the attempted rape of a black woman, Williams made a historic statement on the courthouse steps.
He said of his courthouse proclamation at a later press conference: “I made a statement that if the law, if the United States Constitution cannot be enforced in this social jungle called Dixie, it is time that Negroes must defend themselves even if it is necessary to resort to violence."
“That there is no law here, there is no need to take the white attackers to the courts because they will go free and that the federal government is not coming to the aid of people who are oppressed, and it is time for Negro men to stand up and be men and if it is necessary for us to die we must be willing to die. If it is necessary for us to kill we must be willing to kill.”
Jay J. Hector at October 12, 2015 6:15 PM
That system of checks and balances only works when each branch seeks to balance the other one, not collaborate with them.
When Harry Reid eviscerated the Senate in order to make it easier to rubber stamp Obama's proposals, he gutted the checks and balances built up over decades of political give-and-take. I was no fan of Robert Byrd, but he was the last guardian of the Senate's privileges. Reid seemed to believe the Senate existed to serve the party and, as a result, was one of the worst Senate leaders ever.
Pelosi did the same thing as Speaker of the House, never inconveniencing her party's president, even when it meant neglecting Congress' constitutional duties.
Conan the Grammarian at October 12, 2015 9:05 PM
David Crawford: "Do you know when and where the 2nd amendment really and truly proved its worth? In the south during the civil rights era of the 1950's and 60's. Think of it, blacks were just as well armed as those who would do harm to them. How much worse would it have been for blacks if they were unarmed?"
Yep, Condi Rice mentions that in a book about her parents: Extraordinary Ordinary People. She grew up in Birmingham, AL.
The Klan (with Bull Connor's blessings) would have run riot throughout the black neighborhoods at night, as Connor did with fire hoses and dogs attacking peaceful protesters during the day.
Except, they didn't; because, as Rice writes about in this book, her father and several other black men in their neighborhood sat out on their front porches all night - with their loaded shotguns!
Rice also mentions that she believes that, if there had been some sort of gun registry program, Connor would have found some pretext to go around during the day and take away those guns that were registered to blacks. Thereby, leaving them defenseless against Klan attacks at night.
charles at October 12, 2015 9:11 PM
Sir Oswald Mosley tried to develop a Fascist movement in the UK in the years before WW2 to mirror the rise of National Socialism in Germany. His British Union of Fascists aka 'Blackshirts' was rabidly anti-Semitic and parroted Hitler's rantings about Jewish conspiracies and intrigues.
In October 1936, the BUF announced a march through the predominantly Jewish areas of East London. The majority-Jewish population, led by the Jewish-Communist political leader Phil Piratin, announced that 'they shall not pass' and they faced off with Mosley's 2-3,000 BUF marchers as well as the 5-6,000 police officers who were assigned to try and allow the march to take place. In the Battle of Cable Street, Mosley's BUF marchers were routed and the locals fought running street battles with the police for hours to make sure they did not return.
Not saying I approve of this at all - marchers should be allowed to march peacefully, no matter what - but is shows that a motivated Jewish population is more than willing to fight off oppression if given the chance.
llater,
llamas
llamas at October 13, 2015 3:25 AM
Jay J. Hector,
Thank you for those references. I'll check those movies out.
The WolfMan at October 13, 2015 5:44 AM
llamas,
Oswald Mosley's son, Max, was President of the FIA (International Automobile Federation)from 1993-2009. The FIA sets the rules for Formula 1 racing.
There was an alleged Nazi sex scandal with Mosley (from the link below which also has video):
F1's Max Mosley's Nazi Orgy with 5 Hookers
The Germans are second only to the British in their fascination for newspaper stories involving Nazis and sex. Television documentaries entitled "Hitler's women" regularly get top viewing figures.
No suprise then that Bild, Germany's mass circulation newspaper (readership estimated at 12 million), had as its front page splash a gritty black and white photograph of a black-clad prositute and a naked grey-haired Englishman. "Uproar over Nazi Sex party!" said the headline. "Five hour orgy on video, Whores wear Nazi uniforms". The newspaper stresses that the man is only allegedly Max Mosley.
But inside the newspaper -- on page 19 close to the usual Formula One coverage -- Bild makes clear that Mr Mosley is of prime initerest to German readers: educated in the elite German boarding school Salem, a friend of Michael Schumacher, and that rare Englishman -- a fluent German speaker. A photograph of Oswald Mosley making a Hitler salute underlines the fact that the family has two generations of links with Germany.
No other German newspaper covers the affair quite so extensively -- Bild has three other pictures from the News of the World video -- but it is clear why the story is unusually spicey for a German public. Wearing Nazi uniforms is banned as is the display of the swastika -- the pictures of Prince Harry's fancy dress party gave readers a rare chance chance to see the Nazi symbol, and even then some newspapers blocked it out. The idea that Englishmen could pay to be whipped by women dressed in these uniforms, or those of concentration camp prisoners, is deeply shocking, a violation of Germany's deepest and darkest taboos.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=4d3_1207044480
Jay J. Hector at October 13, 2015 12:42 PM
Jay, I did not realize that Max Mosley is Oswald Mosley's son. That explains a lot of things. It was always the assumption back in the day that Bernie Ecclestone picked Mosley as the FIA chief because Bernie had something on him.
Cousin Dave at October 13, 2015 1:22 PM
Cousin Dave,
Check this link to an article in GQ UK magazine from July 7, 2015, entitled:
Max Mosley is not Hitler's son
http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/entertainment/articles/2015-07/07/alastair-campbell-max-mosley
Max was blessed by Hitler. Read the article for the full story of Oswald, Max and Adolph.
Jay J. Hector at October 13, 2015 5:48 PM
I know Max Mosley is the son of Sir Oswald Mosley. But it wasn't relevant to the point I was trying to make.
I don't care what he gets up to with consenting adults. However, part of the fallout from his scandal is that he now campaigns to restrict press freedom in various ways in Europe, including support for the 'right to be forgotten' and the efforts of other soi-disant celebrities to prevent the press from reporting things they would prefer to keep secret. For that, he deserves our derision. He's a lawyer, a capable engineer, a successful businessman, and he knows how the UK press works - if he gets caught on tape doing what he was doing, he's nobody but himself to blame, and he certainly has no justification for limiting what the press can print. Printing things that might embarrass somebody is what the press is supposed to do, and trying to prevent them from doing it to spare Max Mosley's blushes is a lousy way to make public policy.
llater,
llamas
llamas at October 14, 2015 6:55 AM
Parodied to near perfection by P.G. Wodehouse in The Code of the Woosters as Roderick Spode:
Conan the Grammarian at October 14, 2015 10:07 AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMPuROQMBuw
llamas at October 14, 2015 11:02 AM
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